Starts an Erlang node with default options on a specified host, or
on the local host with specified options. That is, the call is
interpreted as start(Host, Node) when the second argument is
atom-valued and start(Node, Opts) when it is list-valued.

Starts an Erlang node with name Node on host Host as
specified by the combination of options in Opts.

Options Username and Password are used to log on to the
remote host Host. Username, if omitted, defaults to
the current username. Password is empty by default.

A list of functions specified in option Startup are
executed after startup of the node. Notice that all used modules
are to be present in the code path on Host.

The time-outs are applied as follows:

BootTimeout

The time to start the Erlang node, in seconds. Defaults to
3 seconds. If the node is not pingable within this time, the result
{error, boot_timeout, NodeName} is returned.

InitTimeout

The time to wait for the node until it calls the internal
callback function informing master about a successful startup.
Defaults to 1 second. In case of a timed out message, the result
{error, init_timeout, NodeName} is returned.

StartupTimeout

The time to wait until the node stops to run
StartupFunctions. Defaults to 1 second. If this time-out
occurs, the result {error, startup_timeout, NodeName} is
returned.

Options:

monitor_master

Specifies if the slave node is to be stopped if the
master node stops. Defaults to false.

kill_if_fail

Specifies if the slave node is to be killed if a time-out
occurs during initialization or startup. Defaults to true.
Notice that the node can also be still alive it the boot time-out
occurred, but it is not killed in this case.

erlang_flags

Specifies which flags are added to the parameters of the
executable erl.

env

Specifies a list of environment variables that will extend
the environment.

Special return values:

{error, already_started, NodeName} if the node
with the specified name is already started on a specified
host.

{error, started_not_connected, NodeName} if the
node is started, but not connected to the master node.

{error, not_alive, NodeName} if the node on which
ct_slave:start/3 is
called, is not alive. Notice that NodeName is the name of
the current node in this case.